Painting a picture of depression

…but when you have depression you could find that you forget things all the time. You might struggle to concentrate, get words mixed up, or find planning and organisation a real challenge.

This is because depression doesn’t just affect your mood, it affects your mind too. Cognitive symptoms are common in depression and include having trouble with:1

Here, other people with depression describe how these cognitive symptoms have affected their working lives.

People with depression often feel bad about making mistakes and blame themselves. But this can create a vicious cycle, where feeling bad just makes the cognitive symptoms worse.2

It’s important not to become discouraged or disappointed with yourself, and to recognise that these are just symptoms of depression. Just as with other more familiar symptoms, these ones can be treated with the right medication.

Explore our website for further information, advice, and support on living with the cognitive symptoms of depression. Alternatively, you can join our Twitter conversation using the hashtag #InsideDepression.

To find out more about dealing with cognitive symptoms of depression, download our back to daily life booklet